Women's lacrosse drops conference opener to Trinity

The women's lacrosse team ended up on the short end of the stick for the third time in as many years last Saturday against the Trinity Bantams in Hartford, CT. The Bantams are currently ranked 16th in the country.

Trinity senior Laura Davis scored the go ahead goal with 10:58 left in the game to lead the Bantams to a 10-8 win over Tufts. The Jumbos, who lost for the first time this season, fell to 3-1 overall, and 0-1 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. Tufts junior Willow Hagge, who has 13 goals and seven assists in her last four games, scored three goals with freshman Ryan Killen tallying two more to lead the Jumbos in the loss.

Senior midfielder Katelyn Bowman gave the Bantams an early 1-0 lead, opening with a quick goal just 27 seconds into the contest. The Jumbos went on a mini-run over the next 14 minutes, shutting the Bantams out and running off four goals of their own to take a 4-1 lead with just five minutes left in the first half. Trinity clawed its way back into the contest with two goals by Bowman and Davis to bring the Jumbos lead down to one as the first half buzzer sounded.

"As a team, we played an amazing first half," junior Lauren Peach said. "It was clearly our best individual half of the season."

Tufts came out with a newfound intensity to start the second half.

"Trinity is a really fast team, so coach just told us to keep running with them and hustling down the field on fast breaks to try and score quick goals," Peach said.

The Jumbos rattled off three of the next four goals to increase their lead back to three goals, 7-4. Trinity quickly countered the Tufts attack, as the relentless Bantams scoring three goals over the next five minutes to tie the score at seven apiece with 13:26 remaining.

"We played an excellent first half, and kept up our intensity through the first part of the second half," Peach said. "But we stopped playing good defense in the second part of the second half, and we lost a lot of possessions late in the game."

The Bantams, however, did not stop there. Trinity sophomore attacker and NESCAC player of the week Bea Gratry found a streaking Davis who shot quickly past Tufts senior co-captain and goalie Ari Kristan to put Trinity ahead to stay with just under 11 minutes to go. Gratry and senior Elizabeth Miller tallied a goal apiece to give the Bantams a 10-7 lead with under five minutes to play. Killen led the Jumbos final run with a laser shot past Bantams junior goalie Alexandra Benjamin to pull the team within two scores at 10-8, but that was how the game would end.

"We made lots of mistakes in the second part of the second half," Peach said. "Trinity was not playing better than us; we played better in the first half but played down to their level in the second. They wanted it more later in the game, so they deserved to win."

Kristan finished with a season high 16 saves for Tufts, while Benjamin paced the Bantams with nine. With the win, the Bantams moved to 7-0 on the season and 2-0 in the NESCAC, sitting in a tie for first in the conference, while the Jumbos dropped to a tie for seventh in the NESCAC.

"The game against Trinity was a great game for the younger players," Peach said. "It was the first time this season we played a good overall team, and their defensive pressure surprised the younger kids. Possession late in the game is key, and we need to work on turning the ball over less against tough defensive teams."

The Jumbos face the Bowdoin Polar Bears in their NESCAC home opener today at 4 p.m. on Kraft Field.